“No coloreds are allowed to be buried here. Only white human beings...” That’s what Karla Semien of Oberlin, LA was told when she went to buy a plot to bury her husband, Darrell. I interviewed Mrs. Semien & the graveyard association president who’s since changed the contract.
Mr. Simen served the people of Allen Parish as a sheriffs deputy and it was his wish to be buried at that cemetery. Little did he know the racism that would await his wife and family. google.com/amp/s/www.cbsn…
Creig Vizena is President of the graveyard association. It was his aunt who told the widow that she couldn’t sell to her because Semien was black. Shockingly, his aunts daughter allegedly asked the family: “do y’all have a back up plan?”
google.com/amp/s/www.cbsn…
google.com/amp/s/www.cbsn…
The old contract and the new contact. 
There are stories that you hear about where you think that can’t be true. There must be something I’m missing. Surely someone couldn’t of said that. Everything I feared was true, was true. And as a Louisiana native, I’m personally ashamed and disgusted by this.
Because of the racism his family faced, Mr. Semien isn’t buried in the town where his family lives. His wife says as she called around to find another cemetery that would sell a plot of land to her, the first question she asked was: “do you accept Black people?”
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